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One morning my girlfriends mother took us to the nearest train station and we took the first train to the center of Hirosaki city, the train itself was pretty much like every other train in Japan since it was JR train.

The size of the station of course was small compared to the huge stations in Tokyo.

I love that in Aomori and especially in hirosaki you can see Apples everywhere like here on top of the mailbox.

Poor vending machine was full of snow as well. One thing that surprised me about some Vending machines there was that you could use Suica!

One of those days we had a quick meal in gasto since it was the only good place we could find where we were walking around.

Also had a quick sweet time in Baskin Robins as well !

This thing is a bit shocking ! took this in the mall at Hirosaki, this is the alarm for bags so I would beg you not to steal one since you will get caught 😀 All the bags had one !

People in Aomori loves ramen (but then again so does most of Japan) so of course my girlfriends mother does well so pretty much everyday we ate ramen and I had no problem with that since I love ramen. The ramen in Aomori is a bit different compared to the normal ramen you get in Tokyo, I liked the Aomori ramen a lot.

Like I said Aomori is famous for it’s delicious apples, in Tokyo the apples brought from Aomori are pretty expensive but of course in Aomori you could buy them in normal price.

(I personally love them, if you remember who followed my blog that my girls mother send us a big box full of apples earlier and I ate many of them)

This dog is very famous in Aomori and pretty famous in Japan in general called Wasao. Aomori was filled with different candies,cookies and dog food with his name and photo.

We happened to stop by a shop that was on the coast of sea of Japan and there was a lot of cute cats like this one outside.

We went to our usual shop called Happy drug (funny name hehe) to by some groceries and I noticed something that it was super cheap so I took couple of photos.

I’m a fan of Mana-chan, she is a famous girl now in Japan and I am following her career a bit as well. You can see her all over these days like here.

This a pretty handy thing they invented in Japan. great for old people and so on 😀

So Christmas went and New Years is coming coming fast ! Our Christmas here in Tokyo went very well with delicious Christmas chicken that we reserved from KFC before and with a tasty Christmas cake from Baskin Robins that we got on Christmas eve.

In Japan two most important things to have on your Christmas table are chicken and cake.

At baskin Robins we could not get a christmas cake since all were reserved but we did get a normal cake from there that was great !

There was a long line at 24th as well

This is the normal Christmas box that you get when you order a Christmas cake.

This is what we got !

Luckily we had our Christmas chicken reserved from KFC november already so we got the set that we wanted. I have to say that I love KFC in Japan ! In that box was the perfect amount for us as well.

I actually forgot to take a photo of the chicken because I was starving.

But this the cake we ate.

And after we got everything eaten we took a breather and relaxed a bit and then we started to make the Christmas house that we bought and here are the results 😀

Now we are in a hurry with packing and getting ready for our trip to Aomori, to be exact Hirosaki city. We’ll be staying there about a week. Today we will go there from Tokyo station with a night buss and we will be coming back at 3rd of January in a Shinkansen (bullet train).

I’ll have my camera with me so I will try to get some beautiful winter landscape photo as well as photos of the Hirosaki castle.

Also I will be updating at least a little from my ipad while I am there! but for now Have a great week and HAppy new year 2012 for everyone ! thank you so much for following my life in Japan so far !

I’m good friends with manager of the famous Sakura hostel Asakusa and she invited my girlfriend and I to a Swedish party she was having with her Swedish friends at her hostel.

Before I show you photos of this party and tell you the story of the party, I’d wanna throw a advert for sakura hostel asakusa.

If you are visiting Tokyo and thinking where to stay I recommend highly this hostel with it’s friendly staff and great atmosphere. Sakura hostel asakusa also has many different events monthly from calligraphy drawing lessons and Kimono trying to sightseeing tours as well (most are free or very cheap). When I came to Japan the first time I stayed with Sakura house which is another part of the Sakura company but the first Hanami (flavor watching event in spring) was through Sakura hostel asakusa, they invited me there and I met many friends that has become very close to me here in Japan.

More about the Hostel. Free wifi (difficult to find in Tokyo to be honest) and of course if you are staying there you can use their computers free as well. Great kitchen area where you can actually cook well with all the space.

For entertainment the place has a flat screen tv with game consoles and board games and let’s not forget a piano 😀 !

Top 10 things about Sakura hostel Asakusa:1st. Free WiFi2nd. Cheap3rd. Location, in the middle of Asakusa and close to the station4th. Staff, some of the most friendliest people in Tokyo. ps. they can speak many languages.5th. The size of the kitchen area6th. Events that they organize7th. trust worthy8th. Big tv,game consoles and board games for a boring night9th. Vending machines (alcohol as well)10th. two great smoking areas right outside

If you have followed my blog you have seen that I go there pretty often to use their wifi and to meet new people and have fun.

(Sakura hostel is not paying me to write this just want to give a advert to the best hostel in Tokyo)

But now to the party !

Party was great ! there were 3 Swedish people, 1 Estonian, 1 Finnish (me), 1 German and 3 Japanese including my girlfriend. So almost all of Scandinavia you might say. Food was delicious as well with traditional Swedish meatballs and sushi with beer and hot wine. I was at the hostel already like 4-6 hours earlier to upload photos and edit, so I was taking photos when they were cooking and putting everything together as well.
Talking about Sweden with serious faces 😀

Was a good day with a delicious Japanese lunch and my girlfriend and I have this tradition that always when we go to Akihabara we go to M.O.S burger to eat as well, no idea when that started tho heh.

This is what I had for lunch it is called kakuniteishoku, have to say that it was delicious
and
My girlfriend ate Tekkadon, not bad either 😀

After that we head off to Akihabara and I got some good shots there ! it’s very interesting now that the Autumn leafs are great in Tokyo but it is already winter here technically.
Of course always have to take photos of the AKB48 cafe and Gundam cafe
Again a shot of one of my fav girls in AKB48
I hate this place.. Eats all my 100 yen coins !

Maids at Akihabara working hard to get customers to come to their cafes ! (this is so normal to me now heh when I got there first time I in such a WOOOOOOWWW state but now normal thing to see)

and here are few shots of Akihabara 🙂

SofMap having big sale, go and get cheap electronics 😀

Akiba

Ate at MOS like I said..

We went to ginza after Akiba because I had to complain at Apple store a bit since my ipad2 cover is making weird colors to my ipad..But got some good shots there as well!

I don’t know if many of you know but next week Monday we are going to see my girlfriends family in north Japan at Aomori. At this moment Aomori is full of snow and freaking cold, ok ok I’m Finnish and Finland is a cold place too but what I have heard from my Finnish friend is that Aomori is VERY cold! Bit worried but I am sure I manage ! need to get some Japanese shirts that are Heat tech !

But I promise I will get some great photos there !

Few panorama photos again taken with my sony.

We were a bit lucky! the smoking room at mos was totally empty ! first time saw it empty

Took a little walk at Harajuku and omotesando since I haven’t taken photos there lately and of course I wanted to get some shots of the beautiful Christmas illuminations at omotesando.

When we got there we were starving, so we took a quick stop at Wolfgang puck express restaurant. I love that place since it is so cheap that it is almost shocking. Great onion rings and burgers ! I recommend lunch time menu for everyone (lunch end at 5pm)

Here are few photos of the delicious burgers and onion rings we had.

These Onion rings are in my top 5 onion rings of Tokyo !
Number one I would have to say to be Shakeys
two would be M.O.S burger onion rings
third this place
forth Hard rock cafe Tokyo
fifth not sure yet 😀

Photos from the near by area.
Harajuku full as always.
School girls shopping in the Christmas sales !

Best crepes in Tokyo, I eat there pretty much always when I visit harajuku.

Harajuku station
One of my favorite girls at AKB48
Window of Louis Vuitton at Omotesando

The famous Christmas lights.
I’d just like to say that one reason why I wasn’t pleased with these photos to come was because I could not get up to the walkway to take photos since all were closed and police were all over the place!
…as you see…

but here is what I got!
Loved that last one with Santa and coca cola 😀

Here are again some Panorama photos that I took with my sony, (from all over Harajuku,shibuya,omotesando)

We also bought a ginger cookie house for us to build, We were going to build it today but we are already too full to start making that so tomorrow before Christmas chicken and cake we make it.

Let’s start with the cute cat, I wanna say that I did not give her that food but some nice Japanese person did. She lives near my house and always when I walk to Wallmart she start following me.

Touch Screen Vending Machine. Tokyo is slowly getting a lot of these, of course in Akihabara station you can find lots of them but also other parts of Tokyo you can see them here and there.
I personally love it since I am crazy about vending machines.

Saw how they made these guys on Tv and I had to go to see them at Lalaport shopping center. They are all old Robots and they were modified to play instruments.

Two videos that I took at the festival at asakusa ( see the post before for more info )